“To Free-Town, Our Common Judgement Place”: Commoners in Romeo and Juliet

Abstract

Although the bulk of Shakespeare’s plays open with characters of the noble class on stage, five open with commoners. In each case, the commoner characters direct our gaze and focus our attention on the issue at hand. The device is used frequently throughout Shakespeare’s canon: the commoner character is presented matter-of-factly and sympathetically, with little affect and sometimes with little development, and thus serves a similar role to that of the Chorus in a Sophocles play, leading a commoner audience member to recognize the nature of the conflict in the play at hand.